Higher Open Called For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last six trading days since the end of the four-day losing streak in which it had plummeted almost 1,300 points or 6.4 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 19,520-point plateau although it figures to open in the green again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive as financial institutions around the world continue to takes steps to head off more turmoil. The European and U. S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow that lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Monday with damage across the board, especially among the technology stocks.

For the day, the index plummeted 517.88 points or 2.65 percent to finish at 19,000.71 after trading between 18,829.11 and 19,382.97.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group and Xiaomi Corporation both declined 2.82 percent, while Alibaba Health Info tanked 3.81 percent, ANTA Sports skidded 2.45 percent, China Life Insurance shed 1.82 percent, China Mengniu Dairy plunged 4.25 percent, China Resources Land sank 2.08 percent, CITIC weakened 2.53 percent, CNOOC slumped 2.59 percent, Country Garden plummeted 4.78 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical surrendered 2.88 percent, Galaxy Entertainment tumbled 2.90 percent, Hang Lung Properties lost 1.72 percent, Henderson Land retreated 2.73 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas slid 1.53 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China eased 0.94 percent, JD.com stumbled 2.72 percent, Lenovo tanked 3.20 percent, Li Ning plunged 3.64 percent, Meituan was down 1.15 percent, New World Development dropped 2.09 percent, Techtronic Industries fell 1.63 percent and WuXi Biologics plummeted 5.94 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Monday but all eventually settled firmly in the green.

The Dow surged 382.60 points or 1.20 percent to finish at 32,244.58, while the NASDAQ rose 45.02 points or 0.39 percent to close at 11,675.54 and the S&P 500 added 34.93 points or 0.89 percent to end at 3,951.57.

The strength on Wall Street partly reflected a positive reaction to the latest efforts to address turmoil in the banking sector, including UBS Group's (UBS) state-backed acquisition of Credit Suisse (CS).

The Federal Reserve also announced it has joined with other central banks around to world to take coordinated action to enhance the provision of liquidity via the standing U.S. dollar liquidity swap line arrangements.

Traders were also looking ahead to the Fed's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday, with CME Group's FedWatch Tool currently indicating a 26.9 percent chance interest rates will remain unchanged and a 73.1 percent chance of a 25-basis point rate hike.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Monday to settle on a firm note, shrugging off concerns the banking chaos might lead to financial crisis or a recession. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended higher by $0.90 or 1.4 percent at $67.64 a barrel.